Not Sophie with a 'p-h', Sophie with a 'PhD' (one day)

Month: May 2017

So one of the things I’m also doing is getting married! We’re having the day in Newcastle where we’re from, at the end of this month and there’s a lot left to organise but it’s very exciting.

My life is currently of two halves. In the day, I try to cram as much experiments and analysis as possible into the hours available, then I head home in the evening and spend all evening on ‘wedmin’! Who knew that napkins could elicit such intense discussions.

I decided to take a couple weeks off that would all me to finish of wedding planning and have a ‘mini-moon’ in Lisbon to chill out. My supervisors were really great about it and have been so supportive. The best and the worst thing about a PhD is that your work is completely your own responsibility. While I can plan things so that I’m able to have these two weeks without needing to swap shifts or anything, it does also mean that while I’m away nothing will progress, it’ll take me a while to get things up and running again afterwards and that I’m always thinking about it! However, wedding-head is real and I’m confident I’ll be distracted enough and enjoying myself enough to focus solely on getting hitched!

We had our Tissue Repair Away Day this month, where we all presented our work to the other students of our programme and the PIs. I was perhaps overly nervous, as it felt like announcing myself to the world like some sort of debutante ball. Much like a debutante, I suppose, I’m sponsored by an established member of the society who’s there to support me (my supervisor!) but there was no curtseying, only challenging questions! Think it went okay but I need more practice.

This was the first of its kind for our programme and I hope it continues. It was really interesting to see everyone’s work, especially the third years who have so much to talk about! They were first up, then the second years, then us, (we were a little, er, data-light in comparison) but it was a good way of practising and thinking carefully about how to talk clearly about our projects. The social activity on how to give a presentation seemed a bit mis-timed AFTER giving presentations but the meal with an included drink was perfectly timed…